Controversial topic...
A bit off the beaten path and some may think frivolous, but do you believe in ghosts? If so, why? I had a weird experience the other night and not really sure what to make of it.
0
-
In point of fact eye witness testimony is the least credible evidence in a court of law. 4 people describe a car crash. They do not agree on who caused it, or how or what happend next and who did what. There exists not a shred of scientific evidence for the existence of ghosts, despite a lot of looking and listening.
We have all experienced weird things, which proves only that we have all experienced weird things.0 -
I am actualy surprised about the genuine responses to this. I was expecting much different. Thanks for not taking the very easy pop shots this could have brought about. Kinda gives me the warm and fuzzies.[:)] 0 -
Ghosts can be as real to an adult as Santa Claus is to a child. The human mind is a highly-complex and misunderstood machine; combine the conscious with the semi-conscious; add phobias, sensitivity, fear, remorse, anxiety, apprehension, loneliness and imagination while mixing in sights, sounds, smells and limited night vision and you can honestly believe what your eyes really don't see. 0 -
quote:1911a1fan:
nope, and i would gladly spend the night in any haunted house you want,
You might want to ask Regis Philbin about that! Ha ha ha ha !
Rod Serling, Vincent Price and Regis Philbin stayed there/saw some pretty interesting things there..
San Diegans still laugh at Regis Philbin, when back in 1964 he and a friend raised as much publicity hype locally, for his struggling local TV show as he could - made a big deal out of how stupid people who believed in ghosts were, etc. He was challenged to stay in the Whaley House one night - our 'One of The Most Haunted Buildings in The U.S.' ,,, in Old Town.
He and his camera man only made it until 2:30am before they went screaming - like scared little girlie-girls, from the house, running on down the street until they were well away!
That pretty much finished Philbin in San Diego - best thing that ever happened to him, though. He left for Los Angeles and began to get popular there and later famous.
[:D][:D][:D]
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/112196/dest21_top.html
http://members.fortunecity.com/kellyann/whaley.html0 -
quote:Originally posted by zipperzap
quote:1911a1fan:
nope, and i would gladly spend the night in any haunted house you want,
You might want to ask Regis Philbin about that! Ha ha ha ha !
Rod Serling, Vincent Price and Regis Philbin stayed there/saw some pretty interesting things there..
San Diegans still laugh at Regis Philbin, when back in 1964 he and a friend raised as much publicity hype locally, for his struggling local TV show as he could - made a big deal out of how stupid people who believed in ghosts were, etc. He was challenged to stay they night in our 'One of The Most Haunted Buildings in The U.S.' - the Whaley House, in Old Town.
He and his camera man only made it until 2:30am before they went screaming - like scared little girlie-girls, from the house, running on down the street until they were well away!
That pretty much finished Philbin in San Diego - best thing that ever happened to him, though. He left for Los Angeles and began to get popular there and later famous.
[:D][:D][:D]
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/112196/dest21_top.html
http://members.fortunecity.com/kellyann/whaley.html
regis is a wuss, and doesn't have a gun, i highly doubt if someone playing tricks behind walls would be inclined to do so knowing a .45 may come that way0 -
quote:1911a1fan:
regis is a wuss, and doesn't have a gun, i highly doubt if someone playing tricks behind walls would be inclined to do so knowing a .45 may come that way
Nah - it's in the State Park - it was locked up tighter than a drum - there were cops stationed around outside to make sure nobody messed with them while they were inside.
I believe his camerman was an ex-cop - a big mean bodyguard kinda man - he ran, too!
It was what was inside that got/held their attention, made them scream/cry and run away!
[:D]0 -
Wartiger, your grandmother's spirit came to visit you and to let you know that she was ok. This type of ghostly visitation is not uncommon.
I have had many experiences with a ghost at a house that my girlfriend owns and I know that ghosts are real.0 -
Yes, they are real.
My Mom was a clairvoyant. Today would have beem her 75th birthday. She knew things, moreso than just female or Mom intuition. She saw spirits, and told us about them, so I grew up thinking none of this was "weird."
My son has the gift also. Although I never told him about the spirit I had seen in this house one afternoon shortly after we moved in, he told me that the same spirit had been at the foot of his bed the night before.0 -
Yes: you'd have to have been there. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by rcrxs old lady
Although I never told him about the spirit I had seen in this house one afternoon shortly after we moved in, he told me that the same spirit had been at the foot of his bed the night before.
As a student, one of my patients underwent emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction.
She held my hand tightly and asked me what were her chances. I promised her that everything would be all right.
[:(][:(][:(]
"You better"; she said. "Otherwise, I'll show up on your bedroom at night and pull on your covers..."
Have slept with an eye open ever since.
[:0][:0][:0]0 -
To say that there are things we do not yet understand is the only reply possible. To make the claim that they don't exist surly takes a mind that is not open to discovery. 0 -
I have one/something in my apartment.
Apartment is on an old farm with history back to some famous local happenings with politics and refrences to Lincoln just before and after his assassination .
Wakes me and my wife up every morning at 3:30am exactly, hasn't been noticed by the kids yet or has no need to wake them.
I'm still kinda funky about it but shiz happens.0 -
Personally I don't believe in ghost from my own reasoning. I've never been one to believe without proof. But at the same time I can't be certain of what someone may have seen. 0 -
quit believing in them, and you won't see one 0 -
I don't believe in ghosts...but I know your mind will play tricks on you. We had a couple mice this winter and I SWEAR I see one from time to time...darting by....out of the corner of my eye....zip....there it goes. I am the ONLY one that sees this and with how many traps I have set out it just can't be real. But I am so freaked out by the non-existant mouse I see!!! 0 -
dad died in 1987 in 1988 a sunday morning i was sitting in the living room reading the sunday paper, my wife fixing breakfast.there on the tv set a kerosean lamp that my dad had given us while he was alive. he always told me to take care of it because it was special.i had asked him why, he said one day you will know. as i continued to read the paper i glanced up at the tv and and said all my God . the wife said what's wrong and i replied come here quick.not telling her what i had seen, i asked her to look at the brass lamp and tell me what she seen she yelled the same thing i did and said it's your dad.we both stood there in total amazement,with our eyes watering,we looked at each other and then back at the lamp.dads image remained there for about 30 seconds and slowly faded away. we have never seen it again. i guess that was his way of telling us everything was ok 0 -
Never seen a ghost, but I have had a couple of incredible lucid dreams during some troubled times in my life. If I tried to describe the circumstance, the dream, or how it made sence to me, I would sound like an idiot. Maybe the Holy Spirit can move through the sub conscience or maybe the midn can work things out when you relax.
I have learned it is good to accept grief and let it becme apart of your. The alternative is bitterness. It too can become apart of you.0 -
Oh i think they are out there...i think they are just people who are not sure where to go...or maybe god doesnt want them just yet...whatever it might be,,,,wait its cold here..i can see my breathe..it say 71 in here...ok i gotta go[:p] 0 -
im not sure that there is a difference, but i do beleive in spirits.
too many reasons to list suffice it to say i have been convinced. one of my experiences was like yours. as for whether or not you were awake, i have always been led to beleive that when you are dreaming you dont FEEL anything. I have been in a place of mind to figure out that i am dreaming because of not feeling the touch of something.0 -
I believe in ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. I haven't encountered anything that made me a believer, I just have a tendency to believe that (a) I don't know it all and (b) therefore it makes sense that paranormal phenomena exist. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Spider7115
Ghosts can be as real to an adult as Santa Claus is to a child. The human mind is a highly-complex and misunderstood machine; combine the conscious with the semi-conscious; add phobias, sensitivity, fear, remorse, anxiety, apprehension, loneliness and imagination while mixing in sights, sounds, smells and limited night vision and you can honestly believe what your eyes really don't see.
Rather than be cruel and rude, I will let the above be my answer to wartiger's very honest and sincere post about his dear, departed grandmother. Sometimes I just don't have the heart to honestly express my thoughts about ghosts or religion. No, really. I do excerise restraint often.0 -
quote:Originally posted by rcrxs old lady
Yes, they are real.
My Mom was a clairvoyant. Today would have beem her 75th birthday. She knew things, moreso than just female or Mom intuition. She saw spirits, and told us about them, so I grew up thinking none of this was "weird."
My son has the gift also. Although I never told him about the spirit I had seen in this house one afternoon shortly after we moved in, he told me that the same spirit had been at the foot of his bed the night before.
Can you get me the winning lottery numbers for next week? I have been playing and picking my own numbers for years and I always lose. I believe I need some help from the other world.
No, wait. That might be against their code of ethics.[:o)]0 -
I would like to say that I don't believe.
I live alone in a new house. So the house has no history. A couple of weeks ago I got up in the middle of the night and went to the kitchen to get a drink. When I went back to bed I forgot to shut the bedroom door.
As I was laying there going back to sleep, my TV remote kept beeping. (I have a rechargeable Logitech that beeps when you place it in the base and beeps a different tone when you pick it up.) The remote didn't just beep once or twice but was repeatedly beeping as if you picked it up, put it back over and over again.
I chalked it up to the remote was dying or whatever but I did not want to go check it out. I finally got back to sleep I think. Thats when what I remember is something grabbed the blankets on the foot of the bed and pulled. My legs were wrapped up in the blanket and it pulled the blanket into the corner of the room and spun me 180 in the bed.
I don't remember anything after except being in bed covered up. So I am chalking this up to a very believable dream. So believable in fact that I did not sleep for about 3 days afterwards. And every time I walked by that corner the hair on my neck would stand up and I would get chills.
I have not had anything else since, but I am still on edge. I seem to see things dart out of the corner of my eye in the house especially at night but have never seen anything when I turned to look.
So for now I don't believe. But what happened to me felt so real I can see how people can believe.0 -
When my grandpa died, we had his fishing box sitting on a workbench in our basement. Big heavy thing, 20 some pounds (he had a lot of junk in it and it was metal to boot). Flat. A good foot from the edge. Suddenly we hear a crash. The box was on the floor and open. No earthquakes. The cat was eating on the floor in sight at the time. Go figure.
Grandpa always liked fishing. Maybe he had to find his favorite lure to catch a lunker in the afterlife.0 -
I am 40 and have never seen a "ghost". I don't discount that people see entities of some kind, but I also believe in the Bible. There are passages in there that talk about your spirit leaving this earth once physical death has happened. I am more inclined to believe these are demons more than anything else, but thats just my thoughts. I'm sure I would freak if I ever saw a "ghost" because of that process. I would think I'm looking at a demon of some sort. 0 -
Here are some Bible truths that relate to hauntings and visits by the spirits of dead people. There are only a few incidents that deal with the living having contact with a "dead" person.
a) In 1 Samuel 28:7-19, King Saul seeks a woman with a familiar spirit (demon) to inquire of Samuel about what to do. That she actually manages to communicate with the dead shocks her (v. 12) indicating to me that it did not previously happen.
b) In Matthew 17:1-8, Peter, James and John see Moses and Elijah with Jesus for a brief period of time.
c) In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. In this story we learn of there being two compartments for the dead until the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11f.). Also in the story the rich man asks for Lazarus to be sent back to warn the living. Abraham says it would do not good because if they will not believe God's written word, they will not believe though one should rise from the dead.
From the above three passages of Scripture, I would conclude that there are compartments in which the spirits of the dead dwell for now and that while there are a few instances in which God allowed interaction between the living and the dead, those situations were very rare and not nearly as common as contact between people and angelic beings. Also Luke 16:27-31 would indicate that no human spirits are allowed to return to visit the living without permission, and if permission is not granted for the purpose of warning people to flee from the wrath to come, it would not be given for trifling reasons.
Unlike the two instances dealing with actual contact or communication with dead people, there are numerous instances involving contact with angelic beings, both good angels and evil angels (demons). Many of the instances involving a good angel refer to "the angel of the LORD," usually referring to the appearance of the pre-incarnate Son of God. But many others refer to other good angels that God uses to minister on our behalf (Hebrews 1:14). To minister on our behalf, sometimes they manipulate the physical environment (1 Kings 19:5-7 (the angel touches Elijah and provides food and drink for him); 2 Kings 19:35 (the angel strikes 185,000 Assyrians dead); Daniel 6:22 (the angel closes the mouths of the lions); Acts 12:23 (the angel strikes Herod for accepting worship as though he were a god); etc.)
In like fashion, there are numerous instances in which evil angels (demons) are recorded as interacting with people. And again, they are able to manipulate physical things as well. In Job 1:12-19, they manipulate people to do evil; they cause fire from the sky to consume herds of sheep; they cause a wind to blow down the house in which Job's children were staying. In the gospels a number of instances are recorded of demons possessing people (Matthew 8:16,28f.; 9:32-33; 12:24; 15:22; 17:18; etc.) In these incidents, and several others, the manifestation of the demon possession involved some physical ailment (muteness, epilepsy, blindness, but sometimes supernatural strength). They also possessed the pigs before they ran into the waters and drown in Mt. 8:28f.
I would like to note three things about demons: (1) The demons have no power over anyone but what God allows, that is, Satan (and his host of evil angels) are like wild dogs on leashes and it is God who holds their leashes. They can do only what He allows (Job 1:12; Job 2:6; Matthew 8:31-32). (2) The instances of demonic involvement recorded in Scripture far outnumber the few extreme instances of interaction with dead people. (3) Christ has given His disciples authority over demons (Mark 16:17; Luke 9:1; 10:9).
You might ask why God even allows demons to mess with us. If they are on His leashes, why doesn't He hold them back from any interaction with humans? In the unfathomable wisdom of God, He is able to use their evil desires and intent upon our lives and bring good out of them for Christians (In Mark 1:13 God uses Satan's temptations to prove Jesus' sinlessness; in the Book of Job, God uses Satan to show the integrity of Job's character and then later rewards Job doubly for all he went through; in 2 Corinthians 12:7, God uses Satan's affliction upon Paul to keep Paul from becoming proud). In the case of unbelievers, Satan and the evil angels serve as a type of catalyst working along with the unredeemed world's influence and the cravings of the sinful nature to bring out of unbelievers' hearts the evil that already dwells within, thus revealing to them and others what their true nature (fallen nature) is like (Matthew 15:18-19; Ephesians 2:1-3; Revelation 20:7-9).
Now, as you examine Scripture, particularly the epistles which focus upon our life in the "church age," you find very little dealing with how we are to interact with the demons other than not to presume to address them in our own ability and strength (Jude 1:9). Nor are we told to dwell upon and continually wonder if there are demons working around us even now. (The answer is yes...and sometimes they manifest themselves!) But whether they do or not, they are not to be our focus. Why not? Because once again, they have no authority but what God gives them. Who and what then should be our focus? Our focus needs to be upon God and the clear commands that He gave us in Scripture; if He is our focus, we need fear nothing else (Psalm 27:1).
We are not to become fascinated with the spirit world but to be fascinated by God and His awesome character and attributes (Psalm 27:4; Psalm 73:25). And if, in the course of serving Christ and relying upon Him, we should encounter manifestations of demon possession or demonic activity, we need only turn to Him in simple, believing prayer; relying upon His Word and His Holy Spirit to work as He chooses (even as we should be facing life when there are NO evident manifestations of demonic involvement, for Satan often does his most frequent and effective work behind smoke screens and never makes his presence or that of his demons evident (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
If demons should happen to be manifesting their presence somewhere, I would ask myself why. Is there a heathen idol, a fetish used in heathen worship, etc. (Deuteronomy 32:16-17; Psalm 106:37-38; 1 Corinthians 10:19-21)? Or, perhaps there is someone who has allowed themselves to become possessed by a demon or has allowed demonic involvement in their life by some repeated, serious sin (Ephesians 4:27). Any occult items in one's possession should be burned as Paul and the other Christians treated the books that were burned in Acts 19:18 and any known sins should be confessed to God (1 John 1:9).
Again, I believe it is biblical to believe in demons and that what people believe to be hauntings are either the mere illusions of charlatans or involve actual demonic activity, the visiting by human spirits. I also believe that the use of channeling and seeking the guide of "spirit guides" or "spirit helpers" or to play with Ouija boards, tarot cards, s?ances, or to listen to Satanic heavy rock music, etc. is to actually invite the involvement of demons in one's life. I also believe it is biblical to not become obsessed with them and with the spirit world. Nowhere in Scripture can you find any precedence for doing so. Rather we are to be consumed the word of God (Psalm 119), with knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8-10), serving Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2), and seeking to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20, etc.). The only freedom that the lost can have from sin and the devil is through that found in Christ alone (John 8:32-36; Romans 6:16-23; Ephesians 2:1-10). It is His gospel that we need to concentrate on sharing with others. That gospel is the power of God for deliverance from sin and Satan (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18).
... what was the question?
[:D]0 -
WOW!
What I meant to say is what zipperzap said. Do a little Bible study in your time big guy?0 -
Nope, not for years - lightening fast researcher, though.
[:D]0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
28 comments